Guides

Part 1 of the Austroads Guide to Road Safety introduces the Guide as a whole and sets out the Safe System approach that frames the remaining six parts. It explains why a systems view of road safety — one that accepts human error and physical vulnerability as design constraints — has replaced the older focus on individual blame, and how the Safe System's interacting elements (safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles, safe people and post-crash response) combine to eliminate death and serious injury.

This part is the entry point for practitioners, decision-makers and students new to the Guide. It describes the shared ethical and evidentiary basis of the Safe System, the shared responsibility between those who design and those who use the network, and how the later parts translate these principles into practical guidance on infrastructure, speed management, road-user behaviour, vehicles, audit and strategy.